Battery systems, in particular rechargeable batteries, are often custom designed and manufactured for a particular purpose, tool or end use. In some situations these batteries have become de facto standards such as the BB2590 rechargeable lithium battery which was originally designed for use in military applications, but can now be found powering industrial and even consumer products.
Power tool manufacturers often develop one battery pack for their line of tools and allow one or more of these batteries to plug into each individual tool. In this way, the battery can be moved from tool to tool as required.
In military applications, soldiers may carry many different sizes, capacities and types of batteries. A mixture of rechargeable, non-rechargeable and even other power technologies such as fuel-cells and solar panels may be carried into the field by a soldier. This power equipment is a major weight burden on the soldier and can reduce their effectiveness and mobility in the field to the point where their safety is compromised.
Portable battery systems are often carried in custom made pouches, or attached to clothing, back-packs, belts or other items of clothing on the person's body. The distribution and re-distribution of this weight is dictated by the situation and in some cases the addition of extra battery packs is simply not possible due to the limitations of available battery pouches or attachment devices. The comfort level of these systems is also poor with the square batteries providing an irritant to the naturally curved shape of the human body.
There remains a need for a system to improve the way batteries are carried. There is also a need to allow multiple pieces of equipment, at different voltage levels, to be operated from a single common battery, battery pack or energy system. There further exists a need for a reconfigurable battery pack and power system that would allow the user to combine batteries in a wide variety of ways to provide the exact voltage, current, capacity, size, weight and form factor that the user requires at that time. We have named the concept of this reconfigurable energy sharing battery pack energy conversion system a SharePack™. The invention will be referred to as an energy share pack throughout this document.